Greetings All:
Brand new to this forum and a first-time Suburban owner. Not a stranger to wrenching... Always done my own work since I was about 15... Now 47...
I recently bought a 1998 Suburban 4WD SLT a couple of weeks ago to primarily use as a beach truck. Got a great deal (maybe...LOL).
Went to the beach Saturday for some surf fishing... Had to switch to 4LO to get down the soft beach sand. All went well until I left the beach area and reached the pier parking lot. The push-button shifter would not switch to either 2HI or 4HI. I had to drive it home approximately 20+ miles in 4LO. Not fun. Fortunately, I read that the AutoTrac NV246 transfer case is pretty forgiving on pavement.
Sunday arrived and I proceed to do a little troubleshooting. With the wife in the drivers seat, I crawled under the truck and had her place the tranny in neutral (engine running) and cycle thru the push-button switches. I could hear/feel the transfer case motor attempting to do its thing...
After some internet research, I read that the motor position sensor had a pretty high failure rate. The push-button lights were acting funky so I thought this must be the problem.
I removed the skid plate, front driveshaft and finally the transfer case motor assembly. With it unmounted from the transfer case, I was able to reconnect the two connectors and had the wife cycle through the push-buttons again.
The motor cycled forward, back, forward, back and then stopped. I am not sure if this is normal behavior but it at least spun when she pushed the buttons on the dash.
I figured the sensor was still outta whack, and after removing the motors' protective cover and finding all kinds of corrosion, I decided to spend the bucks and replace the entire assembly.
After reading on the internet forums that the new motor assembly would be shipped in a "neutral" position, I decided to try to manually place the transfer case into neutral in advance of receiving the replacement assembly.
Using a 9/16" wrench, I attempted to move the selector shaft (?) into the neutral position by attempting a single CCW click of the shaft. Unfortunately, the shaft would not spin... either direct. In fact, the shaft seemed a little bit wobbly.
After reading this long story, I will get to the gist of my post...
1. Should I have raised the rear wheels off of the ground or removed the rear driveshaft before attempting to rotate the selector shaft in case the transfer case gears were in a bind?
2. If the shaft doesn't spin freely with the tranny in neutral, is the transfer case screwed?
3. If so, should I anticipate replacing particular parts, in advance, should I attempt to do a rebuild myself?
As I mentioned, I am not afraid to tear things apart, and usuallly they go back together successfully (haha), but is this something I want to attempt to fix myself, in my driveway, given the symptoms described above?
This is a great forum and I look forward to your knowledgable replies!
Regards,
Highside
Rockport, Tx.
Brand new to this forum and a first-time Suburban owner. Not a stranger to wrenching... Always done my own work since I was about 15... Now 47...
I recently bought a 1998 Suburban 4WD SLT a couple of weeks ago to primarily use as a beach truck. Got a great deal (maybe...LOL).
Went to the beach Saturday for some surf fishing... Had to switch to 4LO to get down the soft beach sand. All went well until I left the beach area and reached the pier parking lot. The push-button shifter would not switch to either 2HI or 4HI. I had to drive it home approximately 20+ miles in 4LO. Not fun. Fortunately, I read that the AutoTrac NV246 transfer case is pretty forgiving on pavement.
Sunday arrived and I proceed to do a little troubleshooting. With the wife in the drivers seat, I crawled under the truck and had her place the tranny in neutral (engine running) and cycle thru the push-button switches. I could hear/feel the transfer case motor attempting to do its thing...
After some internet research, I read that the motor position sensor had a pretty high failure rate. The push-button lights were acting funky so I thought this must be the problem.
I removed the skid plate, front driveshaft and finally the transfer case motor assembly. With it unmounted from the transfer case, I was able to reconnect the two connectors and had the wife cycle through the push-buttons again.
The motor cycled forward, back, forward, back and then stopped. I am not sure if this is normal behavior but it at least spun when she pushed the buttons on the dash.
I figured the sensor was still outta whack, and after removing the motors' protective cover and finding all kinds of corrosion, I decided to spend the bucks and replace the entire assembly.
After reading on the internet forums that the new motor assembly would be shipped in a "neutral" position, I decided to try to manually place the transfer case into neutral in advance of receiving the replacement assembly.
Using a 9/16" wrench, I attempted to move the selector shaft (?) into the neutral position by attempting a single CCW click of the shaft. Unfortunately, the shaft would not spin... either direct. In fact, the shaft seemed a little bit wobbly.
After reading this long story, I will get to the gist of my post...
1. Should I have raised the rear wheels off of the ground or removed the rear driveshaft before attempting to rotate the selector shaft in case the transfer case gears were in a bind?
2. If the shaft doesn't spin freely with the tranny in neutral, is the transfer case screwed?
3. If so, should I anticipate replacing particular parts, in advance, should I attempt to do a rebuild myself?
As I mentioned, I am not afraid to tear things apart, and usuallly they go back together successfully (haha), but is this something I want to attempt to fix myself, in my driveway, given the symptoms described above?
This is a great forum and I look forward to your knowledgable replies!
Regards,
Highside
Rockport, Tx.
